Film on Moroccan Jews Survives Zionist Propaganda Charges (Video)

Posted on: February 26th, 2013

A Moroccan film on Jews who have abandoned the country for Israel has met fierce Islamist and left-wing protests but has survived charges that it is “Zionist propaganda” designed to encourage “normalization” with Israel. In the film “Tinghir-Jerusalem: Echoes from the Mellah,” director Kamal Hachkar talks with people in villages about their memories of some [...]

Kosher Barbeque a Smoking Hot Fad in New York

Posted on: February 26th, 2013

His 2-ton wood-burning “HaKodesh Barbeque” provides “pop-up” barbeques, complete with a dining tent, bales of hay and country music.

Putin Visits Russian Jewish Museum

Posted on: February 26th, 2013

Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian dignitaries joined Russia’s Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar for a special tour of the Russian Jewish Museum of Tolerance, considered the largest Jewish museum in the world. Federation of Jewish Communities president Alexander Boroda also was present to escort Putin at the museum exhibits in the 90,000-square-foot former bus [...]

Police Let Women Read Megillah at Kotel on Shushan Purim

Posted on: February 25th, 2013

A women’s Megillah reading at the Western Wall took place on Shushan Purim without incident or arrests on Monday, the day after most of Israel and the rest of the Jewish world celebrated Purim. Approximately 80 women turned out, some donning prayer shawls, others dressed as police and Haredi Orthodox worshipers, on Monday morning in [...]

Detroit Jewish Leader on Pro-Nazi and Convicted Killer’s Hit List

Posted on: February 25th, 2013

The FBI warned the head of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit that his name was on the hit list of a convicted killer and neo-Nazi sympathizer. Scott Kaufman, CEO of the Detroit federation, was told last week that his name was on a list in a notebook kept by a Toledo man who was [...]

Chagall Lithograph Sells for $314,000 in Unique Hi-Tech Auction

Posted on: February 25th, 2013

A Marc Chagall work from 1981, “Bouquet in a Green Vase”, was sold at the Tel Aviv Hilton for $314,000 in an auction that was held simultaneously in several countries, Globes reported Monday. The Matsart auction house brought more than $800,000 in the sales, which included a 1959 work by Mané Katz, “Four Musicians”, that [...]

US Orthodox Jews Find Bugs in Nutrition Agenda

Posted on: February 25th, 2013

The federal government says spinach is so healthy that schools will lose their eligibility for funding if the Popeye favorite is not served, but some orthodox schools say the rule is full of bugs – literally. Several orthodox Jewish groups have asked the US Dept. of Agriculture to choose substitutes for leafy green vegetables that [...]

Women of Wall Rabbi Calls Knesset ‘Achasverosh’

Posted on: February 25th, 2013

Purim is an upside-down holiday, but Women of the Wall Rabbi Silverman takes the cake. She calls the Knesset Achasverous, a wicked goy, and suffers “tragedy” for her regarding them as enemies.

Rabbi Lau to Obama: God Sent You to White House; Send Pollard Home

Posted on: February 24th, 2013

Former Israeli Chief Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau wrote President Barack Obama  that God, via the American people, “appointed you…President of the United States,”  and that as a defender of freedom, he should release Jonathan Pollard from prison more than 28 years. Rabbi Lau quoted from chapter 14 in the First Book of Samuel, which refers [...]

Paris Jewish School Rabbi Indicted for not Reporting Sex Abuse

Posted on: February 24th, 2013

The principal of a Jewish school in Paris was indicted for failing to report the sexual abuse of minors. The television network RILL reported that a Paris magistrate indicted the principal, identified by RILL as Rabbi Benjamin M., 55, on Feb. 21 for “non-reporting of sexual abuse of minors under 15 years.” Victims’ parents told [...]

Smartphone app Has Text of Megillah and Drowns Out Haman’s Name

Posted on: February 24th, 2013

What would Purim be without the following apps? One Smartphone app provides a noisemaker, and another lets you choose which noise to make – such as a machine gun or air horn.

Germany Drops Charges against Mohel

Posted on: February 24th, 2013

A German prosecutor has dropped all charges against Rabbi David Goldberg , who faced a criminal trial last year after a Cologne court ruled that circumcision was illegal in Germany. The ruling followed a case of a four-year-old Muslim boy who was hospitalized for excessive bleeding after being circumcised The German parliament has since passed [...]

Samsung Israel Treats Facebook Friends with Purim

Posted on: February 24th, 2013

Samsung, which operates R & D operations in Israel, is sending 10,000 baskets of Purim Mishloach Manot goodies to anyone whose relative or friends signed him up on the company’s Mobile Israel Facebook page. The company also contributed to two charity organizations by paying the Variety Israel and Enosh Fund organizations to pack the snacks [...]

Modern Orthodox Students Meet to ‘Slam’ in Poetry Combat

Posted on: February 22nd, 2013

The students could have come from anywhere, but the content of many of the poems dealt with various aspects of their relationship to God and to Judaism.

Vienna Jewish Museum Contains Looted Objects, Officials Say

Posted on: February 21st, 2013

Officials from the Jewish Museum of Vienna said that hundreds of objects in the museum’s possession were looted from Jewish families during the Holocaust. A review of the artifacts found 490 objects and more than 980 books that may have been stolen from Jewish owners, The New York Times reported Wednesday. “For historic reasons, people [...]

Jews in Washington Launch Fund to Help Gross and other Jailed Jews

Posted on: February 21st, 2013

The Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington established a legal defense fund for Jews being held wrongfully because of their Jewishness and will assist Alan Gross, who is in prison in Cuba. Financial contributions will be used to help cover the legal defense of Jews in the United States and throughout the world who [...]

Police Let Sarah Silverman’s Niece Visit Western Wall on Purim

Posted on: February 20th, 2013

Police have agreed to allow the niece of American comedian Sarah Silverman will be allowed to attend a women’s Megillah reading at the Western Wall despite being banned from the site. Hallel Abramowitz Silverman, 17, was one of 10 female worshipers arrested for wearing prayer shawls during a women’s Rosh Chodesh prayer service at the [...]

Maryland May Allow Online Purchase of Israeli Wines

Posted on: February 19th, 2013

Maryland state legislators are pushing a bill that would allow online purchases of kosher wines for international retailers as “a reasonable religious accommodation that allows Marylanders of the Jewish faith to live out their faith more easily,” said Democrat Delegate Sam Arora. The state’s Daily Record, a publication focusing on law, reported that the state’s [...]

Rice Implores BBYO Teens to Work for Change

Posted on: February 18th, 2013

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice charged teens at BBYO’s International Convention to “get impatient with the way things are so you can dream of the ways things can be.” Rice addressed some 1,700 B’nai Brith teens, staff and community last week, and the youth dispersed to 34 service sites across Washington to perform a collective 6,000 [...]

Netanyahu Wants Sharansky for Second Term as Jewish Agency Head

Posted on: February 18th, 2013

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the Jewish Agency Board of Governors Monday that Agency head Natan Sharansky is “a giant of the Jewish people,” and he asked the Board to renew his position for another four years. Sharansky, whose low height makes him an unlikely basketball star, “is the tallest chairman of the Jewish Agency,” [...]